#GhanaWebRoadSafety: Lower Manya Krobo taxi drivers admit to being distracted by women

Correspondence from Eastern Region:

According to a survey by the AA Blog, some men admit to being distracted by beautiful women and their outfit while behind the wheels, thanks to their roving eyes.

But stealing glances at women while driving isn’t just the problem, the bigger problem is the risk of a resultant crash coupled with men being more prone to road rage and aggressive driving behavior.

GhanaWeb Correspondent Michael Oberteye spoke to some male drivers in Lower Manya Krobo, in the Eastern Region on this phenomenon and delved into their personal experiences.

Harrison Tetteh, a 33-year-old taxi driver who has been behind the wheels for the past four years did not hide his admission that the assertion could not be far from the truth.

“It is very true,” he said without hesitation. “I even experienced it before. Mostly, at times, you may see a woman, the way they dress, you can be watching them and then before you realize, you’d be on the other lane of the road.”

He added that the phenomenon contributed in various ways to accidents on the roads. He said, “Yea, most of the accidents are caused by this women.”

Nicholas Ayertey is a tricycle rider. He didn’t mince words in admitting that the concerns are real.

“Oh yea, it is true…if you see the woman and your mind focus on her, you’d lose control or forget about what you’re doing.”

According to him, he’s “not interested in those kind of women or to chat with any girl, so if I’m driving, I see you, I no see you,” he said, adding, “If you are looking at her, before you realise then you take the other lane or you go nearby the gutter before you come back to the road.”

When asked if he thought this contributed in any way to the spate of road crashes and accidents in the country, he answered in the affirmative.

A pastor, Frederick Asare who has also been behind the wheels for ten years now also agreed with the assertion.

Speaking from behind the wheels of his posh Hyunda Tucson saloon car, the man of God said, “it is possible [that men stare at beautiful women when driving] because naturally, men are attracted to beautiful things so when they see beautiful ladies by the roadside forgetting that they are driving, they try to look at what is by the roadside and those things can cause accidents.”

Narrowing down to his personal experiences, Pastor Asare who did not deny ‘paying attention’ to women by the wayside, however, said he’s never crashed due to his roving eyes.

“I don’t want to say that I don’t see or I don’t watch when I see beautiful ladies by the roadside but I’ve never had an encounter where I had to crash into the gutter or have an accident with anybody,” he said.



To avoid this kind of situations, he advised drivers to focus and keep their eyes on the road while driving.

A KIA truck driver also shared his views with GhanaWeb. Just as the others, Matey Paul who has been driving for the past eleven years admitted that the assertions were real but blamed it on the provocative dressing of most young women.

“Some of them, the dressing the ladies have been dressing on the road, maybe your attention will be on the lady and then you forget yourself,” he averred, but added that most drivers cannot escape blame either due to their philandering character.

According to him, “some of the drivers are ‘womanisers’ so after watching the ladies, then maybe you forget yourself.”

He dismissed assertions that this was a contributory factor in accidents but advised his colleague drivers to stay focused to avert these situations on the roads.